8TV was formerly known as MetroVision Channel 8 or TV4. It was managed by City Television Sdn Bhd and broadcasts from Shah Alam. Initially the broadcast area was only limited to Klang Valley, Seremban and parts of Malacca only, but later expanded to Kedah and Johor, thus allowing Singaporean viewers to access it. Viewers were required to install fish-bone antennas in order to receive this channel.
The channel targets Malay and English-speaking viewers; Chinese and Hong Kong dramas are also shown in this channel as well.
Unfortunately, in January 1996, the Media Prima-owned Mega TV, Malaysia's first pay-TV service was launched and it quickly gained many subscribers. Soon after, Astro was launched in mid-1996 and this proved to be one of the fatal blows to Metrovision.
But the commencement of broadcasts of ntv7 in July 1998 did really sound the death knell for Metrovision. ntv7 was said to have better sound and picture quality than Metrovision, and ntv7 was also reported to have longer broadcast hours compared to Metrovision.
Metrovision was incurring heavy debts in the closing months of 1998 and early 1999. Nevertheless, Metrovision was finally wound up on 1 November 1999, 04:00 local time.
Read more about this topic: 8TV (Malaysia), History
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